Why replace when you can adapt? Although the length of the average working day has not changed in terms of actual hours, the expectation in today’s “instant society” is that the output needs to be much greater than the input.
It is this expectation that creates the fear of being left behind and drives us to keep upgrading, re-inventing and chopping and changing our software. This is often not as necessary as we presume, when companies already have devices, systems and platforms that are being underutilised. Perhaps, instead of buying another additional product that now offers a more specialised feature, we should be looking at what we have and integrating a slightly different process in order to maximise results?
The frustration with most software and systems is that they require people to perform a task that works separately to every other function that they perform. Even if notifications are sent to the sales person, there is often a need to log into a stand-alone system in order to continue. Although the process may not be complicated at all, the time … ah yes, the time … spent breaking a certain train of thought to go and retrieve or capture information is the real issue here.
What if we were to stop and take a moment to think about the technology that we already use and never perceive its use as an effort or an unusual action? What about the things we do automatically every day, without thinking. Immediately, one thinks of taking a call on a mobile phone or text messages and email – these have become such an integrated part of daily functionality, that they are no longer perceived as unusual or out of the ordinary.
Are these functions, then, being fully utilised in order to feed sales teams good quality, relevant information about potential customers? Can we not use these already existing infrastructures to send pertinent information to a specific individual at a time that makes the most sense? Could the sales person have the ability, without having to switch “channels”, to give quick, concise and instant feedback?
The thought process is that, in between all the hundreds of emails or SMSes that we accept willingly every day, why not integrate sales opportunities and feedback into an existing process? This could help reduce problems such as the need for large budgets, lengthy and time-consuming training and, ultimately, it would eliminate the resistance from the sales team of having yet another system to use.
Perhaps it’s time to shift our train of thought and see how we can improve on existing platforms in these tough economic times?
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